Historical Organization
Caracas cabildo
Caracas cabildo
Details
Organization Timeline
AgustĂn de Ancona seeks license for enslaved miner Francisco
đź“… 4 February 1573On 4 February 1573, AgustĂn de Ancona asked Caracas’s cabildo for permission to use his enslaved man Francisco as a miner with his own crew. The petition records both the extraction economy and the...
Enslaved people are forced ashore at La Guaira
đź“… 2 June 1590Caracas cabildo minutes noted that Portuguese trader Rui GĂłmez Bravo, sailing with a licensed slave ship bound for Cartagena, was forced to disembark at La Guaira. The source does not establish a...
Francisco appears as Caracas’s Black public crier
📅 16 September 1597Caracas cabildo minutes identify Francisco, a Black man, as a public town crier. This official role makes visible a Black worker whose labor served public communication, even as the archive’s racial...
Caracas records Black and mulatto residents’ land lots
đź“… 22 November 1625Caracas cabildo records discussed lots given to Black and mulatto residents and later listed lots they purchased. The minutes offer evidence of Black and mixed-race residents making claims to urban...
Cabildo notes an enslaved woman’s illness
đź“… 10 January 1626Caracas cabildo minutes recorded an enslaved Black woman belonging to AndrĂ©s GarcĂa as suffering from Hansen’s disease, then called the disease of Saint Lazarus. The brief entry places a woman’s...
Free mulatta Francisca González secures a half lot
📅 4 February 1645Francisca González, identified as a free mulatta, petitioned Caracas’s cabildo for half a lot; the council granted it. Her successful claim shows a free woman of African descent negotiating for...
Free Black woman Ana de Guevara receives half a lot
đź“… 25 May 1651A Caracas cabildo report supported Ana de Guevara, identified as a free Black woman, in her request for a plot of land. The council granted her half a lot. Her case records a free Black woman...
Juana de Villanueva petitions for a lot
đź“… 3 January 1654Juana de Villanueva, identified in Caracas records as a free Black woman, petitioned the cabildo for a portion of a lot. Her request appears in the same set of municipal records that register other...
Enslaved messenger delivers warning of thirteen enemy ships
đź“… 26 June 1654A Caracas officer reported that on 4 June an enslaved man belonging to alcalde Pedro Hurtado Monasterios delivered a paper warning that thirteen enemy ships were expected on the coast. The cabildo...
Caracas land register names nineteen Black and mixed-race women
📅 16 February 1659A Caracas cabildo land register, described as a “sensuario a solares,” names nineteen Black, mulatto, and morena women. Some are explicitly identified as free; the record does not establish that every...
Enslaved man Manuel answers officials about his master
đź“… 1 January 1664Caracas cabildo minutes record an official asking for the whereabouts of Francisco de Aguirre Villela. Manuel, described as his enslaved mulatto, replied that his master was in the countryside. The...
Will directs the sale of six enslaved people
đź“… 19 September 1667A Caracas cabildo record copied a will attributed to Rafael de Flettes. It directed his executors to sell six enslaved people judicially, for cash or on credit, and place the proceeds into a rent...
Caracas debates night trading by enslaved and Indigenous workers
đź“… 13 August 1668Caracas councilors proposed closing pulperĂas after the nine o’clock bell, citing enslaved and Indigenous service workers who brought produce to trade at night. The account also says shopkeepers...